Zaidi: Congressional diversity increasing, with far-reaching consequences

With President Obama’s second term officially under way, effective collaboration within the newly elected and diverse 113th U.S. Congress is crucial to success.

We like to think of this new Congress as a demographic mirror of the population. A true represenation of the voters allows for a true understanding of the different burdens of society.

But a true representation of the voters would actually be quite different from what we see today. In the House, there would be 219 Republicans, 235 Democrats and 81 representatives who align with neither predominant political party.

The Senate would have 72 White members, 13 African-American members, 5 Asian members, 1 American Indian member and 8 other members of mixed descent and other races. Fifteen percent of these members would consider themselves Hispanic or Latino.

However, reality differs greatly from this idealized conception.

While the Senate somewhat matches the partisan makeup of the country, the 113th House has a Republican majority, sitting with 233 Republicans and 200 Democrats.

And far from being a rainbow, 80 percent of office-holders in both houses are white.

Thus, our governing bodies do not actually look like we do. This situation reveals a key question we must ask ourselves: How would the American populace feel about a truly representative American government?

Imagine if Congress was divided so it exactly matched the national makeup in race, sex, age or any other demographic. What would our legislative rulings be? Would there be different types of legislation on the floor?

While we don’t know for sure, this year will be a useful test. We shouldn’t get too under-appreciative of our Congress, which this year brings with it a series of demographic firsts.

Firstly, there were a record number of female senators elected in 2012. The previous milestone of 17 has been increased by 3 to a total of 20 women serving in the highest chamber of our bicameral legislature.

Secondly, the majority of Democratic members in the house are either non-white or women. Women are improving their representation, holding 78 Democratic house seats, and 20 Republican house seats.

Third, as a show of the power of the Latino vote, 30 Latinos serve in the House and Senate.

Lastly, the Senate now has its first openly gay senator — a major milestone for the LGBT community. The six openly gay representatives serving in the 113th Congress show a growing acceptance of this demographic.

Unfortunately, one milestone not achieved was an increase in elected black senators. The only one currently serving, Republican Tim Scott, was appointed in late December to replace retiring Jim Demint.

In order for democracy to function, the makeup of government officials must be analogous to that of the general population.

A representative legislature is the only avenue for the creation of a direct democracy that we wish to truly reflect our ideals. It’s the closest we could ever come to a system of direct voting.

By creating a government that is literally representative of its electorate, American democracy would finally fulfill one of its original intents: the just and fair administration of its citizens (executive, congressional, and judicial branches included).

But this representation would actually be a shift from another of the original intents. In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison says that Congress should be, “a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.”

The Congress envisioned by Madison is not what we are seeing today. If the question is, can a middle-aged, upper-middle-class, heterosexual white man represent the views of an elderly, lower-class, homosexual Latina woman, Madison offers a very different answer than some of us might today.

“Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice pronounced by the representatives of the people will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves convened for the purpose.” Madison says the demographics of representatives shouldn’t matter.

This conflict between demographic and substantive representation will continue to grow as Congress gets more diverse. The Madisonian vision of “impartial” philosophers is shifting to representative governance.

This shift is huge, and given the amount of change in our representation that may occur in the next few years, it is substantial. We will see a female presidency in our lifetimes. But as to how this changes our view of government, only time will only tell.

Write to Danny at dhz1@pitt.edu.